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No Death Sentence for Tycoon in Egypt

CAIRO — An Egyptian businessman and politician who was convicted of paying a hit man to kill a Lebanese pop star received a reduced sentence on Tuesday from an Egyptian court after having received the death penalty last year.

The businessman, Hisham Talaat Moustafa, 51, a real estate tycoon and former member of Egypt’s governing National Democratic Party in the upper house of Parliament, was ordered to serve 15 years in prison.

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Egyptian real estate mogul and lawmaker Hisham Talaat Moustafa received a reduced sentence after having received the death penalty last year.Credit
Associated Press

Human rights activists and critics of the government of President Hosni Mubarak, whose family has close ties to Mr. Moustafa, had hailed his death sentence in May 2009 as a rare victory for the impartial application of the rule of law here. Since then, the Arab world has been riveted by Mr. Moustafa’s effort to escape death in connection with the killing of the pop star, Suzanne Tamim, 30, who fled Egypt after a failed relationship with him.

“I do not think there is a case that can characterize the tyranny of the current political regime, its corruption and its bias towards the interests of a dominant minority like that of Hisham Talaat Moustafa,” wrote Hassan Nafaa, a former political science professor at Cairo University, in the independent daily Al Masry Al Youm on Monday.

During his trial, prosecutors had said that Mr. Moustafa paid Mohsen al-Sukari, a former Egyptian state security officer, $2 million to travel to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and kill Ms. Tamim. She was found dead in her apartment in July 2008, slashed and stabbed.

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Hisham Talaat Moustafa was sentenced to death at an earlier trial for having Lebanese pop singer Suzanne Tamim killed.Credit
Associated Press

Mr. Sukari also had been sentenced to death. His sentence was reduced to life in jail, which is 25 years under Egyptian law.

Egyptian commentators and political analysts said that Tuesday’s ruling was shocking because of the way in which it was issued — even before the lawyers had completed their defense.